devil, details, etc.

    For the majority of my educational career, I've faced criticism. There are a lot of people who seem to believe that those of us who study something big - say, a world war - are missing the really important stuff. I've been accused of looking at history like an old white man, as if it's all about wars and presidents and not about individual people.
    Today, I'm getting it from the other side. I'm at work, and I'm trying to work, and I'm getting this, "Why don't you care about what's happening this very minute? History is happening this very moment and you're not paying attention!"
    History happens every moment of every day, if you care to pay attention. Most people don't. They don't see the rest of the details as "history" - just the big stuff. This stuff, that's happening today, on every channel and the Internet and which will be rebroadcast and available in archives forever? I can see it later, if I need to. This is like being a Cubs fan for the past few years, and it's both a revelation and an incredibly disheartening look into the national psyche. Why is it such a freakshow, where everybody's taking a break from their normal lives to note how totally amazing this is? From my perspective, this is an elected official who happens to be of color taking office. (Kind of like the Cubs, who happen to be a decent baseball team, taking the Division. It's not about "100 years of futility," as if those same players have been battling away for 100 years. New team, people. Different players. Different era. MOVE ON.) If we can't see this as, special yes in terms of it's about damned time that somebody else came in to get the dumb bunny out of office, but not totally unprecedented in the history of mankind in the sense that this is a progression that began generations ago and will continue because that is what social evolution is all about. I just can't see the point in stopping to watch, as if he's not a regular person, a regular guy, the guy for whom I happened to have voted, who won. Now the real work begins. I'm going to stay at work, and let him get to his.

    UPDATE: It was a very long day, in which my patience was stretched very thin. This rant had nothing to do with anyone who ever reads this blog, so there's no reason for me to have put it here except that it was a safe place for me to rant and not get punched in the eye. Thanks for not punching me in the eye for having a bad day.